Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

plan will be a plan of pure Machiavelian policy: and, considering the frailty of human nature, it is much to be feared that the plan of the maritime power, strenuously as that power will exert itself in concerting no less than in collecting the Jews, will be somewhat alloyed by worldly motives, and will not be adopted simply from a desire to promote the glory of God. Most probably politics will have taken such a turn at that eventful period, as to make it seem to be the interest of both those great powers to attempt the restoration of the Jews. Thus doubly brought back by two mighty contending nations, and thus plunged into the midst of perils and of war during the space of 30 years (for so long a time will, I think, intervene between the first effusion of the seventh vial at the close of the 1260 years when they begin to be restored, and the destruction of Antichrist at Megiddo), the Jews must inevitably suffer many calamities; and we are taught accordingly by Ezekiel, that such will assuredly be the case..

8. When the army of Antichrist is miraculously, overthrown, the Lord, who forgetteth not mercy

to the restoration or even the conversion of the other divisio... Most probably however the two events will be nearly, if n altogether, contemporary. The prophecy, contained in Isair lx. 8, 9, relates solely to the restoration of the converted Jer because they are declared to be brought unto the name of t Lord and we are taught, that some power, mystically term the ships of Tarshish, shall be among the first to undertake ti... great enterprize.

:

VOL. 11.

I i

even

[ocr errors]

even in the midst of judgment, will not make an entire end; but will spare some of the least guilty of his enemies, reserving them for the noblest purposes. We learn from St. John, that a remnant of the beast's army will be spiritually slain by the Sword of the word: and Zechariah teaches us, that even so much as a third part shall be spared. These may be supposed to be less hardened in wickedness than their associates; and to have taken a part in the expedition, either through the inveterate prejudices of a Popish education (the expedition having been blessed and sanctified by the false prophet), or through the tyrannical compulsion which we have already beheld Antichristian France begin to exercise over her degraded allies. Nor will they only be spared: plucked as brands out of the burning, they will likewise be converted by the mercy of God to a zealous profession of genuine Christianity.

[ocr errors]

9. Thus wonderfully preserved and converted, they will become proper instruments to accomplish the yet unfulfilled purposes of the Most High. Scattered over the face of the whole earth, they will carry every where the tidings of their own defeat, of the marvellous power of the Lord, and of the restoration of Judah. Meanwhile there is some reason to suppose, that the awful apparition of the Shechinah will still remain suspended over Jerusalem, visible at once from its stupendous height to a whole hemisphere, and bearing ample

attestation

attestation to the veracity of the fugitives*. Nor will they carry their message in vain. Judah is indeed restored: but the lost ten tribes of Israel are still dispersed through the extensive regions of the north and of the east. These, according to the sure word of prophecy, however they may be now concealed from mortal knowledge, will be found again, and will be brought back into the country of their fathers. All nations and all tongues shall come and see the glory of the Lord; for he will set among them a sign, even the sign of the illuminated Shechinah; and will send unto them those that have escaped from the slaughter of the Antichristian confederacy, that they may declare his glory among the nations. Convinced by ocular demonstration that God doth indeed reign in Zion, and at once divinely impelled and enabled both to seek out from among them and to find the long-lost sheep of the house of Israel, they will bring by land, in vast caravans, all the brethren of Judah for an offering unto the Lord, as the great maritime power had already brought the concerted Jews for a present unto the Lord to his holy mountain. Then shall the stick of Joseph be united for ever with the stick of Judah: Ephraim shall be no more a separate people: but the whole

[ocr errors]

edy to elsulliba

*I apprehend it was froJews would be converted by a

passages of this import, that

Mr. Mede supposed that the

supernatural manifestation of Christ. Had he said the ten tribes, instead of the Jews, I believe he would have approached very near to the truth.in is al nord ed

[ocr errors]

house

5

house of Jacob shall become one nation under one king, even the mystic David, Jesus the Messiah.

The various prophecies, which speak of the restoration of the ten tribes, certainly cannot relate to the restoration of those detached individuals out of them, who returned with Judah from the Babylonian captivity. This is manifest, both because their restoration is represented as perfectly distinct from the restoration of Judah, and because it is placed at once subsequent to that event and to the overthrow of Antichrist. In fact, the converted fugitives from the army of Antichrist are described as being greatly instrumental in bringing about the restoration of the ten tribes. Hence their restoration is plainly future and hence we cannot, with any degree of consistency, apply the predictions which foretel it to the return of a few individuals from Babylon with Judah. Of the Jews, who were carried away captive to Babylon, only a very small part, according to Houbigant not more than a hundredth part, returned to their own country. Those, who were left behind, will doubtles, at the time of the second advent, be brought back along with their brethren of the ten tribes; just as those individuals of the ten tribes, who returned with Judah from Babylon, and (adhering to him notwithstanding the Samaritan schism) were afterwards scattered with him by the Romans, will be brought back with their brethren the Fers.

3

[ocr errors]

So far, but no further, the otherwise distinct restorations of Judah and Joseph will in some measure be mingled together. This circumstance is very accurately noted by Ezekiel, even when predicting the twofold restoration of Judah and Joseph, and their subsequent union under one king. He speaks neither of Judah nor Joseph simply; but styles the one division Judah and the children of Israel his companions, and the other division Joseph and all the house of Israel his companions: thus plainly intimating, that some of the children of Israel shall return with Judah; but that members of all the tribes, not of the kingdom of the ten tribes only, but of all the tribes, shall return with Joseph *.

10. I have stated, that the restoration of Judah will commence at the close of the 1260 years, and have intimated it to be probable that it will not be completely effected until a period of 30 additional years shall likewise have expired. This conjecture is founded upon a remarkable chronological passage in the book of Daniel. The prophet teaches us, that 75 years will intervene between the expiration of the 1260 years and the commencement of the Millennium: and these 75 years he divides without specifying any reason for such a division, into 30 years and 45 years. What particular event will happen at the era of the division, we undoubtedly cannot determine with any

* See Bp. Horsley's Hosea, p. 59, 60.
I 1.3

degree

« PreviousContinue »